Such an assembly is known from WO 2008/033812, which describes a production assembly comprising a gasification unit, a conversion unit of the RWGS type and a reactor for synthesizing hydrocarbons. The RWGS unit is fed with hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water, the electricity coming from a non-carbonaceous source, for example a nuclear, solar or wind energy source.
Electricity sources of the solar or wind energy type provide a fluctuating electric power. In order to smooth out the operation of the production assembly, provision is made for storing liquid hydrocarbons when the available electric power is high and for producing electricity or hydrogen from the stored hydrocarbons in the opposite case.
Thus, the hydrocarbons have to be reformed when a supplement of hydrogen is required for operating the facility. Such reforming is generally carried out in a piece of equipment such as a POX unit (partial oxidization unit) of large capacity, which has a significant cost and a significant footprint.